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Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 169, 11 September 1886, Page 5

! '* tO *H1 EDITOR. ,'«■, Sr^—Jn *hl« morning's iwue of your valuable paper appears a. letter signed •' Adam Porter, chairman of the Ne>, Find Gold Mining Company," commenting on mine whioh Appeared in your issue of Monday. And, sir, notwithstanding Mr Porter's ■■opinion that yourself and the public are nearly ma lick of assays a» they are of small, trial crnshings, I venture again to trespass on your kindness and ask you to permit me •to make reply to Mr Adam Porter, who X think we . have to thank for dragging this matter before the , public, and creating, as. it were, a war between Messrs. Firth and Clarks battery - and the New Era Quartz Reduction Works lately erected in the same locality ; for although we were not at all satisfied with the way matters were conducted in connection with the so-called trials of the quartz from the New Find claim, it* was our intention not to publish anything concerning it, for we^know full well that it is only a .matter of a very, short time and [all doubt will be set at rest as to the advantages of the pans over battery crushing both for gold and silver ores, particularly silver ores containing a high percentage , of silver. Our, process ;is<:no new thing. We are just introducing here what has been in use most euoceesfuUy in America for years past, giving returns of bullion from the ore, according, to the fire assay, of from 60 to 95 per cent , •and comparing this with the results from' the best constructed stamper batteries, where the returns are not more than from 120 to 30 per cent, of the bullion according to the fire' assay, one would naturally expect every citizen of this province would hall with pleasure the prospect ot such improvements, and would at least throw no obstacles in the way,, if they did not give •a helping hand to bring them about But I am sorry to have to say ; that, at least in Wairongomai, such kindly feeling does not exist, for those very individuals who have had the management of the so-called fair trial tests predicted long ago that our plant would be a failure, -and have thrown every obstacle in the way they possibly could to prevent us getting a road or a connection with the tramway . The opposition to the New Era plant has been notorious, and but for the Hon. Mr. Larnach, who granted £1000 -towards making the tramway, the connection would not have been made. I mention -these matters oo account of Mr Porter in his letter of to-day's date making the remark that I insinuated that the trial crushings were not fair, and that there .has been little short of a conspiracy to damn my property. Mr Adam Porter may «call it what he pleases. I have my opinion of it, and I' am not alone in that. As -regards assays, Mr Porter .seems to put little faitih in them. The only assay he seems to approve of or have faith in is when he gets his bullion into the bank, and the clip taken out of.it to ascertain its value; he can tswear by that. I think his remarks in reference to the case of the Woodstock furnace, where they assayed tbe ore before it was put into the furnace, and ascertained that iti -was worth £19 per ton, and then .got a return of £9 10a per ton— if they had not assayed beforehand, they would have >been just like the batteries— never know what they do lose. I think the day is fast -drawing to a close for treating ore without iirst having it assayed. „ Mr Porter further in his letter that I bring forward assays to prove that it was impossible to _get the amount of bullion that came out of "the trials. ' I vrill again dra y Mr Porter's attention to those assays referred to, and contained in my letter of Monday's date, even at the rick of making him a little sick ; and in this case he wilt find a result that is not imagiaary,. but the result of carefully and properly sampled '.parcels delivered to us, by our manager, Mr Wick.. I may mention here that our is so constructed that samples cau "be taken every few minutes, if desirable, from the ground quartz as it leaves the large roller pan, and, before it goes into' the -grinding and amalgamating pan, so that the samples are not taken from a stone here and another there, q but the fairest average -sample that it is possible to get. The 120 trucks of quartz sent to the New Era *plant were divided into two lots, 'as explained in aseay statement attached, namely •—•--•-

Okorge Fraser and Sons, In perusing the above figures, it will be *een that it is utterly impossible for the battery to obtain the result they claim from ■20 trucks of quartz the same an delivered to the New Era Reduction Works, as the following figures will show, by Messrs | JFirth and Clarks battery returns, viz. :— j ozdt. HO trucks (30 tons) yields 24 11 oz dt sr Bullion value 51s 3d = 0 12 % fine gold per ounce. „*. 24 65 oz = .818 bullion per ton SO oz dt err Average of fine gold in two assays 0 11 18} per ton .'. *818 x 12 08 «= 9 88dwtd nue^oll ptr ton <t>/ bwttery) fl'BB «= 67 % fine gold of fire assay U 75 No banking allowance has been made ; if made, the percentage will be greater. As X have already stated, it is an uttei impossibility for the battery to .get 67 per cent., or even bait that amount, especially where bo much silver is in the bullion. Mr Porter states that some of my figures are imaginary, and asks me to go to the company's office and there get the .quantity treated for several months back, and the correct thine, etc In reply, I again refer him to my letter . of Monday's date, where I fall back on what was done by the battery in the month of July, viz : 57, trucks of surface, and compared with that the return • from 20 trucks of the low grade or sent to. the New Era Reduction Works.; and instead of going into the .company's office to wade through the documents, , to find out the correct thing, as he » puts it, I have.jbhe balancesheet of the New Find Gold Mining „Coav . pany ; top the year lending, ,30th April, I§B6. I there find tb» .battery-, crushed I quarts, 1 «nd got|3g«foz jsjd,wt o* gqld i^l^mu 9a llcV isChej|u,i»b 4 eryofjtiruck>lpadfl. wnot mentioned, but 3,aM^ n 4 /ftn 4tetn jinrflftid balancersheet for f! tramming, f . £74$'*16s; and, ifts,! np^ejfstand-jb^t^^he.^ carsjuge # *i»>4p { .o4 pcj t jfiick^^d ,wq»ldijiQ ip&%e, * •bou^.3^i%ck^«tre%tfi4 i fail ttoajmNtott •ttW*m»^9i*to&'JPtodAi oer|6faM»ck. J. bAYo no doubt your returns are correct,

but ifc mutt t* rememb^ed that your month* returns not only includa'all UWnRa that are ground in the fe&clarf, tailing!, heap«, but tt 'is also' tonal to put In the picked stone or specimens at the end of, the, month, which would 1 hot be the ca4e in an isolated 10 or 20 trucks. Mr Porter asks for my authority about the poor stuff I answer ftilr Porter on the one' hand, and' my fire* assays' on tbe other.* Mr Porter aleo informed me that he was going up to the, mine to see ' that justice was done. He ' did go up, and if I am correctly informed ho only spent something like five or six hours at; Waiorongotnai, while it took something like eight days to deliver the 29 trucks of quartz from the mine to the New Era reduction works, con-, sequently he cannot say much about the fairneßi in delivery. In conclusion, I will trouble you with a statement of the result of crushing 80tlbe of quartz from the New Find G.M. Co., to be treated at my experimental plant at Stanley-street, which is capable of dealing with over 2cwt per charge, and the quartz referred to was treated as it would be at the' larger plant at Waironeomai:— ■ , .. .

Result 65 per centof assay : Bullion, 49j 73d The reason of bullion showing so much above fire asmy value of same can be accounted for by loss of silver in separation. In cam paring result with truck londa of 30owt per truck ■= bullion, 6oz 6dvn-=£ls l2a tOd. In reference to Mr Adam Porter's offer to give us fifty truoks from all parts of the mine at the price realised by battery crushing, we decline with thanks, as other arrangements are being entered into whereby plenty of quartz will be got for the plant. Apologising for trespassing bo much on your valuable space,— l am, <fee, G Fraser. September 1, 18.

No. 1 : Raw ore of 10 trucks ; fire assay tests. Average of 4 testa, 7oz. lldwta. 2gr. , Value of Assay. oz'dwtgr £ s d £ s d Gold, '0945 = 0 U 6Ut 4 0 « .. 2 17 1 -Silver, -9051 = G 16 17i>at 0 4 0 .. 1 7 4 Totid „ 7 U 0 .. .. I , i 5 Bullion, lla 7d per oz. No, 2 : Burnt ore of 10 trucks, fire assay tests. Average of S testa. 4oz 2dwt igr. Value of Assay. ozdwter £ s d £ s d : Gold. '1883 — 0 15 10Jat4 0 0 .. 3 19 Silver, TJIU = S 6 13i at 0 I 0 .. o_l3 3* Total ..420 - .. 315 bl Bullion, IBs 3d per oz.

NEW FIND GOLD MINING COMPANY. Tire Assays otihe 20 Tracks Low Oracle Ore. as 1 Treated at New JCra Battery. Trucks divided into 10 raw ore, and 10 burnt •ore, and treated separately at battery works of New Bra;—

Value of Assay , per ton. osdwtKr- £ b d £ s d tcld '4069 = 3 Jl 14 at 4 0 0 .. 14 6 4 lilvor. '5931 = 5 4 12 a(,O 4 0.. 1 0 10* Total .. 8 16 2 15 7 2J Value of bullion, 34s IOJd. 8001b8 gave— ozdwtgr & s d £ a d told, .. « 18 oat 4 0 0 - 312 0 Silver, .. 0 12 9at 0 4 0 = 0 2 4} 1 10 0 314 4| At per ton— ozdwtgr £ r d £ s a tald. .. 2 10 13* at 4 0 0 = 10 1 10J iilver, .. I 13 Hi at 0 4 0 = 0 6 8i BuUion ..4 4~~0 10 8 7i

NEW FIND G.M. CO, . Ta»t from SOOlbs burnt ore (originally 7iowt riiw) ; 1 Fire assay from burnt ore, Boss 16dwt 2grs.